Doing what I do - being an artist, an indie business owner & a mama to 3 noisy kids - is big, hard, mentally exhausting work. I know I talk about slow living a lot, and I do live it in my everyday life. But the reality is you need some tricks to get through being in the noise of mamahood and finding your way to being the artist. Don't you think?

This might be the most raw & vulnerable thing I might have ever told you: it’s about anxiety, learning things about ourselves, sitting with the challenges of life & parenting. And also about how craft, creative work, helps me. It might help you too. Here’s the story :

My two big kids are of the age now where my alternative ways can sometimes be embarrassing. Where they moan at the things I don't let them have, the things I make them do, the ways we live vs the ways they think other people live. My ‘hippie’ ways are a bit too much for them sometimes.

How to fit creativity into the everyday busy of life can be a big challenge for all of us. It doesn't matter if you're a parent of 6, or 1, or have no kids at all. Life can be full, hectic, non-stop. Just regular living - cooking, cleaning, buying food, paying bills, going to work, sitting in traffic.... all those things seem to fill our days before we even get to think about spending time with family and friends, before we can even consider adding in our own creative making time.

This is my recipe for hummus - which is super easy and super yummy. Make some and keep it in your fridge for school or work lunches, morning or afternoon tea snacks, spreading onto breakfast toast, taking to a party, or dipping veggie sticks into. I make it without using any canned chickpeas (it's cheaper this way, reduces the waste of the packaging, and tastes yummier). I buy organic and Australian grown chickpeas in bulk from my health-food shop and soak them myself. It's homemade from scratch, naturally vegan and gluten-free, and plastic-free as well. But most importantly it tastes delicious and my whole family loves it!

Feeling raw in this life can be the hardest thing there is. But it's the only thing, for me. I don't want to - I will not live a watered down life, for anyone. I know now that I do not want to have to self-edit what I think / feel / or say, just to make someone else feel comfortable. Why oh why do I keep walking around trying to make people feel ok or comfortable, when my journey is about moving beyond the boundaries of comfort and ease.

I am slowly slowly getting my garden becoming more of a thing. The dahlias, cosmos and zinnias from Summer’s garden are still blooming quite abundantly, but it’s all looking a little overgrown and end-of-season-ish. A couple of weeks ago, we made a new garden bed, and I planted out the indigo and woad. As well as some other things that needed to from pots to the ground.

Dyeing eggs for Easter is a traditional craft that has it’s origins in pagan Springtime festivals. Like many things, different religions have appropriated aspects and now today we in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate an Autumn-Wintery version of renewal and new growth after the Northern Hemisphere’s Winter’ dark.

I spent a good many days during the hot of January and into early February dyeing fabric. Using local colour (mostly) to creates a bundle of fabric that feels like Summer’s sherbets and sorbets. Gathering from my garden and surrounding landscape

A few things lately ❄️✨ I’m feeling a little disconnected somehow from being here. I know it’s me, and I know it’s because I want more - more depth than these squares allow. These are the beginning glimpse, but actually I want to delve further. I feel like sometimes in this space we’re standing outside talking and it’s very lovely - we’re chatting. But I want to go inside and know more, hear more, see more, feel more.

I’ve been listening to an album called 12 Moons, by Jan Gabarek Group. It’s mostly instrumental with some vocals (in a language I don’t know, which makes it sound like an instrument rather than words). 

And now I’m stitching moons. Small squares (ish) of indigo dyed linen and whatever bits of thread I have left.  

Every year we try to plant a garden, of some sort or other. Some years we’ve had flourishing garden, picking veges and flowers, other years barely anything at all. Some years it’s determined by the floods or the lack of water. I’ve done a lot of hand watering, carrying buckets from the creek to the garden over the years

Let’s be truthful here, if we wanted to have a truly eco Christmas we’d probably not even celebrate at all… but I love giving gifts, and I love any excuse for family to gather around a special meal together. And if once a year we all make the extra effort, perhaps it’s worth it. Also - it’s absolutely and totally possible to celebrate without forgetting the ethos that you live with the rest of the year, and also a great time to share that with others

This beautiful book is a perfect format that take with you in your bag, to have on your bedside table, to pick up around everything else that’s going on. Conscious Creativity* by Philippa Stanton, better known as uber-talented @5ftinf on Instagram.

This work feels, to me, like the ripe opening - the pulling of my soul. The near-whiteness of the external with the colours hidden underneath.. like caves of colours, pockets of what we keep hidden to protect us, to protect our internal thoughts, emotions, feelings. I wanted to share these pockets - to be opened up.